In one of life’s pleasing little coincidences a newly published meta-review of wound care studies has, among its conclusions, established that topical honey reduces wound healing time when compared to film or gauze-based dressings for burns. Derma Sciences, Inc., with perfect timing has announced the CE Marking for its patented MEDIHONEY® HCS (hydrogel colloidal sheet) dressings, containing (you’ve guessed it), honey.

Background

MEDIHONEY is a unique line of patented wound care dressings containing Active Leptospermum Honey from New Zealand, which Derma Sciences says possess unique qualities that make them ideal for the management of chronic and acute wounds and burns. With a strong and growing base of peer-reviewed evidence including several large-scale randomised controlled studies, MEDIHONEY dressings have shown to be effective for debridement and helping to advance hard-to-heal stalled wounds through the healing process.

Derma Sciences claims its HCS dressings (XTRASORB® and now MEDIHONEY) are differentiated in the market in that they utilise super-absorbing hydrogels not only to provide moisture to dry wounds, but also to absorb moderate to even heavy amounts of wound fluid. The company says this creates extremely versatile dressings that can be used on multiple wound indications and conditions, are easy to use and can be left on wounds for extended periods of time, helping to reduce the overall cost of care. Notably, these novel super-absorbent hydrogels have been shown to lock damaging wound proteases into the dressings, which helps to maintain a more optimal wound environment for healing.

Presumably unbeknown to Derma Sciences, BMJ has this week released the online pre-publication of its September edition. It contains a meta-review of 44 Cochrane Systematic Reviews(CSR) relating to wound care (44 CSRs published by the Cochrane Wounds and Peripheral Vascular Disease Groups up to June 2011). The article has been trumpeted in a press release here, and reaches many conclusions about wound care, classified as strong evidence of effect/no effect, limited evidence of effect/no effect and no evidence either way.

Derma Sciences will no dubt be delighted that for acute wounds, strong effects were noted for topical honey, which reduces wound healing time when compared to film or gauze-based dressings for burns.

Company comments

“We will launch commercial sales of MEDIHONEY HCS dressings in Europe in January 2013,” said Edward J. Quilty, chief executive officer of Derma Sciences. “This will be a significant launch as it will help bring our products more deeply into the acute care segment and, for the first time, into the burn care segment. Currently approximately 20% of MEDIHONEY product sales are from Europe and we look forward to further penetration of that market with our advanced wound care products.”